Yes... that really seems to be the main reason. The divergence happened as soon as the 15% tax was slapped on.If you're an overseas speculator/"investor" and want to own canadian property, why pay the 15% extra in van if you can just buy in toronto - which was cheaper in comparison at the time.There is also a sense of urgency as they want to purchase before they apply the same tax in Toronto.

Yes... that really seems to be the main reason. The divergence happened as soon as the 15% tax was slapped on.If you're an overseas speculator/"investor" and want to own canadian property, why pay the 15% extra in van if you can just buy in toronto - which was cheaper in comparison at the time.There is also a sense of urgency as they want to purchase before they apply the same tax in Toronto.

But alot of people say foreign buyers only account for a small % of buyers. Unless this small % is able to generate more demand and panic in the market.

Yes... that really seems to be the main reason. The divergence happened as soon as the 15% tax was slapped on.If you're an overseas speculator/"investor" and want to own canadian property, why pay the 15% extra in van if you can just buy in toronto - which was cheaper in comparison at the time.There is also a sense of urgency as they want to purchase before they apply the same tax in Toronto.

But alot of people say foreign buyers only account for a small % of buyers. Unless this small % is able to generate more demand and panic in the market.

Who is a lot of people? Look at the data... before the 15% foreign tax 11% of transactions in van was foreign, 18% in richmond, 18% in bby... this is only one month of data after the market was cooling down. Im willing to bet it was much higher at the start of the 2016.

After the tax... its 3% below. I encourage you to not listen to everyone but look at the fundamentals and the data. Do you think local income alone can drive and maintain these prices? Vans house prices to income ratio is double that of new york.

What an idiot. He doesn't even read what he posts. Do Syrian refugees buy Vancouver RE?

"... However, today Canadians fear losing their jobs to the new labour force so the idea of stricter immigration laws is looking more and more appealing: a trend that has already been observed in both the United States and Europe..."

Fundamental changes means that the past is no guide to the future. From a perspective of future economic growth.

"However, it seems that, “despite the larger number of immigrants who arrived last year, their contribution to Canada’s population is still small compared to the gap in the working age population left behind by retiring Baby Boomers.”[xii] An article published in Maclean’s Magazine by Jason Kirby used data from Statistics Canada to show how the number of immigrants relates to the current age gap. Compared to the peak of the baby boom, there are approximately 2.2 million fewer workers in Canada’s economy due to the aging population, which is much greater than the 437,815 new people recorded.[xiii] It appears that the claim that Canada’s age gap can be filled solely by immigrants is unfounded."

For the uneducated, the immigration paper is saying that immigration will not offset an aging population. We are already experiencing the effects of a retiring baby boomer generation. Low economic growth! It can only accelerate.

Within 10 years, there will be a surplus of SFH in some Canadian cities. Within 20 years, the population will be contracting. We won't see a repeat of the 1970-2010 boom in RE. The future will be different.

Some popular regions like Vancouver will be better off. But, within 20 years, lower immigration and fewer working adults means that the RE boom is over.